Beer in the new era

Sam Adams is generally dud.

To Mark upthread, the Rogue Morimoto is quite fine, very similar to a black ale like New Belgium's 1554. I have a bro who drives forklift for them and he brings all kinds of Rogue goodness to this festival we do every summer.

Also on the airplane this monday I saw a TV thing with a BEERAMISU dessert made with Rogue Old Crustacean barley wine and tiramisu.

In the fridge now for turkey day is Starr Hill, a local Virginia brew, and some Yuengling Black & Tan. I get spoiled living in Oregon but these are both turning out to be pretty good.

labatt makes a porter that i randomly picked up on a cheap-beer night. i've not really had porters before, and i know that some garbage labatt stuff shouldn't turn me off a type of beer entirely, but CHRIST. IT WAS AWFUL. there are only about 5 beers i won't drink if they are put in front of me, and that is one of them.

I just found this, which was interesting: http://appellationbeer.com/blog/the-best-selling-us-beers-circa-2007/

(I knew about the overall top 10, thanks to the ILE poll, but the list of just craft beers is interesting. I don't think I've ever heard of Deschutes or Alaskan Amber.)

Sierra Nevada being #1 is no surprise, but the nice thing is that it's actually an excellent beer.

BEST SELLING CRAFT BEERS
1 Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
2 Samuel Adams Boston Lager
3 Blue Moon White
4 Samuel Adams Seasonal
5 New Belgium Fat Tire
6 Samuel Adams Light
7 Shiner Bock
8 Widmer Hefeweizen
9 Samuel Adams Brewmasters Collection
10 Redhook ESB
11 Pyramid Hefeweizen
12 Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale
13 Redhook IPA
14 Alaskan Amber
15 Deschutes Black Butte Porter

Kinda interesting, Sierra Nevada outsells Sam Adams Lager? Wow I never would've guessed that. Not surprised in general though that Sam Adams accounts for nearly a third of that list. It's weird, I don't even think of Sam Adams as a "craft brew" at all.

xpost- yea I really like Sierra Nevada, it's a perfect standby pale ale. I love how it's so widely available, too.

Blue Moon does not belong on that list. Also, WTF to #s 4 and 9, aren't those comprised of more than one variety?

Alaskan Amber is everywhere in, well, Alaska (and the greater Pacific NW IIRC).

those beers are like the major label beers of US craft beers.

I've always thought of Sam Adams as the Sub Pop of beers.

And yeah, Sierra Nevada is excellent. If I'm in a bar without much selection, SNPA is often my default.

yeah that works, sierra nevada is the touch and go or the matador

wait now i am destroying my metaphor.

lol

they don't even have snpa in montreal :(

The Alaska Amber was pretty good for a while there. Haven't had any in probably 10 years or more. Hell, I remember when it was called Chinook Amber!

I really hate Blue Moon.I love the Redhook stuff

yea i'm not really a fan of blue moon

surprised there's no rogue in that list.

btw, i finally got around to trying that morimoto soba black ale from rogue. it was good. i think i was hoping for it to be a bit thicker, but it was quite tasting. i find non-stout black beers to be pretty interesting, they're often very sweet tasting but not too heavy. i normally prefer stouts though.

*tasty, not tasting.

i had that winter blue moon the other night, i think it's called Full Moon. not too bad

i definitely second the interest in black non-stouts... i had that german one recently that says something like "black beer, blonde heart" or something on it. kostritzer?

I agree that Sierra Nevada is a fine beer - very hoppy, but with a complex, floral character that sets it above other hoppy American-style ales and lagers. It usually tastes fresh too. I don't always want something with such a strong bite to it, so I'll usually take an HB or Pilsner Urquell or even a Harp instead, if those are available - but I'd still rank it over Sam Adams Lager or Brooklyn Lager.

I never would've guessed that.

i wouldn't either, but perhaps Sam Adams seems more ubiquitous in the Northeast? or the West drinks a lot more beer?

that's possible. if someone's going to drink a craft brew on the west coast, i don't imagine them picking sam adams.

The Economist reports that a looming hops shortage threatens US craft brewers:

http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10337782

Scary stuff.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.economist.com/images/20071222/20071222issuecovUS160.jpg

not such a merry christmas

Alaskan and Deschutes (as well as Full Sail and Rogue) beers are just ubiquitous here in the NW - to the point that I kind of don't think of them as "craft" beers anymore, they're kind of just the default. Most of them are pretty good.

I tend to like a lot of the Rogues the best, but they don't seem to have one single beer that's always around and on tap at any regular hole-in-the-wall bar. Dead Guy is probably the closest, but is still less common than Mirror Pond, Black Butte, Big Sky Moose Drool, Alaskan Amber / Pale / IPA, Fat Tire, and any of the Widmers.

I have a 22 of Deschutes Hop Trip in the fridge that I think I'm going to enjoy tonight.

Dead Guy seems to be the most common Rogue that you see on tap here in the Midwest. (I felt comfortable enough to include ROGUEDEADGUY in a crossword I made recently, clued as "'Morbid' beer made in Newport, Ore.")

I'm alternating Bell's Two-Hearted and Expedition Stout. They don't sell the stuff in Chicago any more, so it's a nice treat.

Great Lakes Brewing News National IPA Championship

brackets: http://www.brewingnews.com/nipac/images/NIPAC-RoundONE.gif

I think I've had 8 of these.

this makes me want to drink more sam adams... to show my support, or something, i guess

I had some magic hat number 9 last night, very nice a fruit beer that isn't sweet, very subtle tang of apricot.

they sell this nice tartish kriek in my local shop now but forgotten the name

Drij Fontainen?

I love that Maisel's Weisse stuff but haven't found a nearby offie with it.

http://www.lemarkbbc.com/images/bottles/469_Zubr.JPG

had a couple of bottles of this. It was notable because I mispronounced the name at the bar and got laughed at by a group of middle-aged Polish businessmen.

It wasn't that good.

how is it pronounced?

my local bottle-o has a bunch of obscuro euro beers and local boutique stuff but i haven't been drinking frequently enough to get the chance to check it out. has anyone had chili beer? is it worth it?

lol it's kind of hard to use letters, I guess like "zsheubber". with emphasis on the "zsh"

http://www.northcoastbrewing.com/beer-RedSeal.htm

Anyone tried North Coast Red Seal...?

Yeah, I've had that. It's pretty good.

So disappointed in Baltika 3. It used to be a great light beer back in the day in Russia, blah blah blah. It isn't the same now it's from Tesco's.

Red Seal is ok, but then I think my beer tastes have been permanently damaged by all the hop-centric American IPAs of the past few years. Everything else just tastes sort of bland now, and malty reds in particular have just fallen off my radar. It's like using too much hot sauce on your mexican food.

Overhopped American ales really piss me off. It's not a B.U. contest, assholes!

Strikes me as such an American approach too, just like how it's always "JIMBOB'S HOT-AS-FUCK HOTTEST FUCK YOU IN THE FACE HOT SAUCE," rather than just good-tasting hot sauce.

Baltika! I almost bought a 51oz plastic bottle of Baltika 9 at a beer store in Portland last month so I could mail it to my friend in Chicago. It just looked so horrible, and was like $4. Like the plastic bottle was saying "if you're drinking me you're depraved enough that you could easily break a glass bottle, plus you obviously don't care that this beer is going to taste like plastic".

I like hoppy IPAs but not everything should be be that way. I had a Sierra Nevada barleywine that was super hoppy the other day and was not at all what I wanted from a barleywine. The "everything else tastes bland" thing is also in effect, so most brown ales now taste kind of weak and flat to me now, like something is missing.

this is one of my favorites:

http://www.allagash.com/curieux.htm

You'll have to believe me: Baltika tasted great to a 21-year-old idiot wandering around Russia looking for things to drink other than vodka and Polish cream liquers.